clinton was like that. ronald reagan did that too. is that what this president is missing? >> it is, his strategy has been to stay out of the fray this weekend because he wants the blame to be on congress, which has about a 10% approval, versus his 55% approval. the president a not good and arm twisting. he knows he won the election and has public opinion on his side. he believes sooner or later the republicans will cave. >> here's the beef. republicans say you want $600 billion in new spending, which would absolutely negate the 600 billion-dollar in new tax revenue, so this doesn't -- this is a deal that's got no beef. where's the peeve? it doesn't attack -- beef? it doesn't attack debt and deficit. >> they're raising taxes and increasing spending. this is how we get into this mess. i can't believe this is the proposal to start fixing the problem. it's irrational. i think what the democrats are doing is they're trying to balance this on the back of small business owners, which is a stupid thing to do when the economy is in a downturn and holding out at the same time to pro